Keeping a Journal

Fisheries Population Analysis

FW5601

Students in FW 5601 may wish to keep a journal. The reasons for this activity are eloquently expressed by Toby Fulweiler, Director of Writing at the University of Vermont. Fulweiler says that the physical act of writing focuses attention, makes learning an "active" process, and individualizes the process. Personal aspects of writing include: committing the writer to a position, identifying one's biases and values, and clarifying for the writer what he/she knows and doesn't know. Because writing is visible it establishes a dialogue with one's self, allows analysis and promotes digression.

The inclusion of journals and frequent informal writing in this course, and more broadly, in our Fish and Wildlife Curriculum is based upon the following premises:

1. All teachers are language teachers.
2. Language and thought are intimately related.
3. Writing serves many roles in the learning process.
4. Reading and writing are the center of the curriculum.
5. There are no "quick fixes".

We are thus committed to providing as many writing opportunities as possible in our coursework. Students will begin to rely upon writing only if it becomes an integral part of every academic experience. We believe that frequency of writing is one of the keys to this reliance and that an informal style with a strongly personal character will be conducive to development of a writing habit. I expect that the journals will help students to understand the course material more completely. Some ways this may be accomplished are listed below:

1. Increase student confidence
2. Increase oral responses
3. De-center authority
4. Encourage independent thought
5. Replace quizzes, tests, papers and talk
6. Monitor class progress

I sometimes ask students to write about a subject that we are just about to address in lectures. This serves to help the student identify what he/she knows about the subject, and students frequently discover that they already have some understanding of the material. For really new topics, the writer exercises some imagination about what the subject might be and subsequently revises this (faulty) model as the lecture is presented.

Fulweiler also suggests frequent sessions of silent writing in the classroom. He claims that this individualizes instruction, generates ideas and stimulates emotions, and observation. He notes that journal writing will not make passive students "miraculously" active learners, but that writing makes it more difficult for students to remain passive. Thus, we hope that more dialogue will be encouraged between students and instructors and among the students themselves.

Journals are intermediate in character between diaries and class notebooks. Diaries are strictly personal whereas class notes document the thoughts of others. Just as the diary is written in the first person, so too does the journal record the students' perception of class material in a personalized fashion. The pronouns tend to be "I", and "We" rather than she or he. Each journal entry should be an exercise in trying to expand on a fact, idea or thought. The student should accept the challenge: "How accurately can I describe or explain this idea?"

Some functions of journals in the classroom are clearly more applicable to one subject (discipline) or another, but Fulweiler lists a variety of ways that journals can be useful:

1. To start discussions
2. To focus attention
3. To summarize lessons
4. To re-orient lost classes
5. To solve language problems
6. To respond to readings, films, and speakers
7. To generate paper topics and research projects
8. To speculate about observations, data and information
9. To create personal dialogue with students
10. To monitor class progress (teacher and student)
11. To let off steam...
12. To relax and enjoy writing
13. To record intellectual and emotional growth

There is no recipe for keeping a journal, but some suggestions are in order.

What is a journal?

A place to practice personal and professional expressive writing; an individual record of educational experience; a writing laboratory.

What should I write?

--personal reactions to class, students, teachers, schools

--informal notes, jottings, clippings, scraps of information

--explorations of ideas, theories, concepts, problems, paper topics

--reviews of articles, movies, books, T.V., recordings

--descriptions of events, places, people, objects

--records of thought, feelings, moods, experiences

--whatever you want to explore or remember

When should I write?

--three to four times a week

--early in the morning and late at night

--when you have problems to solve, decisions to make, ideas to clarify

--when you need to practice or try something out

How should I write?

--however you feel like it

--don't worry about formal language conventions

--take risks and explore your own voice

--freely

--try poetry?

--try cartooning?

SPECIFIC SUGGESTIONS

1. Purchase a small notebook (6" x 8"), preferably looseleaf.
2. Divide your notebook into two sections: ACADEMIC (school related entries) and PERSONAL (private reflections).
3. Record date/time/place for each entry.
4. Write long entries as often as possible to help develop ideas fully.
5. Make lots of entries; quantity is the best measure of a good journal.
6. Use a pen (pencils smear)
7. Index at end of the term: include page numbers and table of contents for significant entries.
8. Plan to share the ACADEMIC section with me, once or twice during the term; delete sensitive or private entries before showing it to me (this is one reason for a loose-leaf format).
9. Consider keeping a "magnetic" copy of your journal and your classnotes.
10. Write a poem, verse or limerick occasionally.
11. Illustrate your journal with anything that pleases you.

Many students want to incorporate personal notes in their journal. This is entirely reasonable, but it can be a source of embarrassment to the reader who may suddenly find a "personal" entry among the various academic and professional notes. Thus, it is a good idea to use a loose-leaf format so you can hand-in only the notes relevant to your professional or academic experiences. If your journal is a bound volume that you don't want to remove pages from, please fold over any pages that you regard as personal.

If you wish to keep a journal, I will collect it at the end of the quarter. I will be commenting on the content, in a non-destructive way, i.e. removable notes; I will not judge negatively anything you have written (If I do, please let me know why you have interpreted my comments as being negative. This is a professional courtesy that we should regularly extend to each other). Journals collected at the end of the course will "count" as a component of my evaluation of you as a student. A "good" journal is a long one, i.e. lots of writing! An "average" journal reflects minimal use by the student. My impression of your journal will be used to decide the outcome of your letter grade if you are at a borderline between grades. The journal is not mandatory, but it is a good idea to use one as part of your professional development, apart from its possible contribution to an improvement in your overall grade for the course.

All "grading" considerations aside, it is a good idea for you to try keeping a journal, just to see whether or not it is a useful or enjoyable experience. There is no magical format that works for everyone. Some students enjoy integrating their class notes with their journals. Sometimes, a "double-entry" system works effectively to allow for the "INPUTS" of others and "REFLECTIONS" of the student. The illustration below suggests only one example of how you might set up a journal. Try it to see how it works for you.

______________________________
REFLECTIONS SIDE

Day
Date(M/D/Y)
Time
Place--- Responses to . . . . . .

_____________________________
DAILY ENTRIES - INPUT SIDE

Day
Date(M/D/Y)
Time
Place--- Ideas . . . . . . . .

______________________________

Original Content by Prof. George R. Spangler (Course Instructor)
HTMLized by G. Spangler with the help of Nisus Writer